'Nobody's rights are safe': DOJ counsel gives Allie Beth Stuckey EXCLUSIVE view of Biden regime's anti-Christian campaign



Christians were told in the first century that the world that hated and persecuted their Savior would similarly hate and persecute them. This divine counsel certainly holds up two millennia later.

'The Biden administration was willing to tolerate Christians up to a point.'

According to the watchdog group Open Doors, over 315 million Christians today face very high or extreme persecution, with thousands murdered yearly over their faith. While the top 10 worst countries for Christians are all in Africa, Asia, and the Indian subcontinent, Christians are also routinely subjected to violent attacks, discrimination, and state suppression in purportedly civilized Western nations.

In America, for instance, hostility toward Christians, their faith, and their institutions came to a head during the Biden administration, which not only turned a blind eye to a rash of anti-Christian attacks but adopted policies that formalized the underlying animus.

Seeking to "end the anti-Christian weaponization of government and unlawful conduct targeting Christians" and rectify the wrongs committed by his predecessor's government, President Donald Trump established the Task Force to Eradicate Anti-Christian Bias last year.

Camille Varone, senior counsel at the Justice Department, gave Allie Beth Stuckey, host of BlazeTV's "Relatable," an exclusive look this week at the culmination of the task force's efforts to date: a damning report detailing both the anti-Christian bias propagated by the federal government during the Biden administration and what the Trump administration has done and is doing to protect Americans' religious liberties.

"The Biden administration used transgenderism as an excuse, as a justification, for discriminating against Christian doctors, medical facilities, against churches, against Catholic schools, specifically," Stuckey said in summary. "And then, of course, there was the targeting of the pro-lifers. Even within the DOJ, there was an attitude of anti-Christian discrimination and the feeling that Christians really didn't count as a protected class, and that manifested itself in very real, illegal prejudice against Christians."

RELATED: The anti-Christian myth of First Amendment 'neutrality'

Samuel Corum/Getty Images

"What we found is that across the board, the Biden administration was willing to tolerate Christians up to a point, and that was when they held their views privately or in the four walls of their churches," Varone told Stuckey.

"When Christians were trying to live out their faith — to see where the Bible, where religious tradition should inform how they actually, you know, went to school, went to work — that's where they ran into policy issues."

Varone — drawing from the findings of the 200-page written report, which is accompanied by over 300 pages of receipts plus thousands of footnotes — highlighted in her conversation with Stuckey numerous anti-Christian governmental abuses and policies advanced under President Joe Biden, who professes to be Catholic, including how Biden's

  • DOJ pursued aggressive prosecutions against nonviolent, pro-life Christian demonstrators under the Freedom of Access to Clinic Entrances Act while taking a markedly less enthusiastic approach to holding leftists, such as members of Jane's Revenge, responsible for attacks against pregnancy resource centers;
  • Internal Revenue Service apparently targeted churches and Christian organizations whose religious values aligned with conservative political views but did not similarly hound churches where progressive views and Democratic causes were championed;
  • administration, working off a liberal reading of the Supreme Court's ruling in Bostock v. Clayton County, sought to mandate the adoption of its views on sexual preferences and gender ideology; and
  • administration ran roughshod over "sincere religious objections" to the COVID-19 vaccines.
The report also details how Biden's
  • Equal Employment Opportunity Commission implemented a rule requiring employers — including Christian organizations — to accommodate workers' efforts to abort their unborn children;
  • FBI investigated, surveilled, and stigmatized law-abiding traditional Catholics, in part due to bogus claims from the scandal-plagued Southern Poverty Law Center; and
  • Department of Health and Human Services attempted to bar Christian providers and would-be parents who hold biblical and scientifically grounded views about sex and marriage from the foster-care system.

The task force reached the conclusion that "in its zealous pursuit of its preferred policies and constituents, the Biden administration engaged in anti-Christian bias, seeking to limit Christians’ ability to act in concert with their sincerely held beliefs in their homes, in the workplace, and in the public square. At times, it went still further, leading Christians to reportedly choose between their beliefs and compliance with federal law."

Stuckey asserted that "this should really disturb everyone" regardless of whether they're a Christian.

Varone agreed, reiterating, "What we found here really should disturb everyone who holds religious beliefs because if the government can do that against a majority group, nobody's rights are safe under that kind of system."

"No American should live in fear that the federal government will punish them for their faith," acting Attorney General Todd Blanche, chair of the task force, said in a statement.

"As our report lays out, the Biden administration’s actions devastated the lives of many Christian Americans," continued Blanche. "That devastation ended with President Trump. The Department of Justice will continue to expose bad actors who targeted Christians and work tirelessly to restore religious liberty for all Americans of faith."

Stuckey expressed gratitude that people are being "aware that things like this are happening," in part because it "encourages us to know our constitutional rights, and that can only be a win."

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Father, mother, daughter federally indicted for alleged assault on TPUSA reporter Savanah Hernandez



The Department of Justice revealed a federal indictment against three individuals accused of assaulting Turning Point USA reporter Savanah Hernandez during an anti-ICE protest in Minnesota.

Video footage of the April 11 incident appeared to show Paige Ostroushko, a Minnesota resident, blowing a whistle just inches from Hernandez's ear before pushing her to the ground.

'This incident isn't just about me, but about every single journalist who has been attacked while doing their job.'

After Hernandez returned to her feet, Deyanna Ostroushko, Paige's mother, confronted the reporter, claiming that Hernandez had instigated the physical altercation.

"Did you f**king hit my daughter?" Deyanna yelled in Hernandez's face, video showed.

Hernandez pushed Deyanna away and seemed to walk off to distance herself from the mob of anti-ICE protesters, according to the video.

"Stop touching me!" Hernandez shouted.

RELATED: TPUSA Frontlines reporter brutally attacked by Antifa mob tells Sara Gonzales the full story mainstream media won’t touch

Savanah Hernandez. Anna Moneymaker/Getty Images

Chris Ostroushko, Paige's father, stepped into the chaos, approaching Hernandez and pushing her, causing her to fall onto the pavement, video showed.

Paige then appeared to go after Hernandez again, and the two got into a brief scuffle.

On Wednesday, a four-count federal indictment was unsealed by the U.S. District Court of Minnesota, charging each member of the Ostroushko family. The indictment did not name the victim.

Chris and Paige Ostroushko "did by force or by threat of force willfully injure, intimidate, and interfere with, and attempt to injure, intimidate, and interfere with the rights of another," the indictment read.

All three family members were accused of aiding and abetting the assault of the victim.

Hernandez sought medical treatment following the altercation and was told that she suffered a concussion and multiple sprains.

"I'm incredibly grateful to the FBI and DOJ for their swift response to the attack I experienced," Hernandez told Blaze News. "This incident isn't just about me, but about every single journalist who has been attacked while doing their job. Today's indictment sets an extremely important precedent for every American and is a strong message to the radical left wing that they are not allowed to violently attack people with impunity any more."

“Today, Christopher, Deyanna, and Paige Ostrouchko [sic] were indicted by a grand jury for allegedly assaulting journalist and Turning Point USA contributor Savannah [sic] Hernandez, while she was lawfully reporting on anti-ICE protests outside a federal building in St. Paul,” stated acting Attorney General Todd Blanche.

“Hernandez was allegedly surrounded, physically assaulted, and shoved to the ground — simply because she was identified by the defendants as a conservative journalist,” Blanche continued. “That is NOT ‘peaceful protest.’ These deplorable actions as charged in the indictment will not be tolerated in America, and this Department of Justice will always punish unhinged acts of political violence.”

RELATED: ‘The threats are real’: Glenn Beck issues urgent call for courage as violence against conservatives escalates

Savanah Hernandez. James Devaney/GC Images

In a recent interview with One America News Network, Chris Ostroushko, a 6', 51-year-old man who weighs 240 lbs., according to online court records, seemed shocked by the backlash he and his family have received.

"It's a little overwhelming and makes me second-guess even living in this country, to be honest with you, with all that's going on," Ostroushko told the news outlet.

He has described Hernandez as the aggressor and claimed that he was protecting his wife and daughter.

The Ostroushko family claimed that after the video went viral, they were doxxed and lost their jobs.

Paige Ostroushko started a GoFundMe requesting $12,000, claiming that she witnessed a "deeply triggering" verbal exchange with "an individual present" who was interviewing attendees about ICE. This "led to emotional distress and a confrontation between the individual and me," she said, claiming self-defense. She also stated that she suffered "head, neck and knee injuries." As of Wednesday afternoon, she had raised $900.

An additional GoFundMe page was started to support the family, requesting $8,000. It has so far raised $310.

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Mike Lee Pushes To Stop Feds From Seizing Phone Records Without Notifying Subject in Wake of Biden Admin’s Arctic Frost Investigation

Sen. Mike Lee (R., Utah) is leading a legislative push to block federal prosecutors from seizing a citizen's phone records without notifying the subject of an investigation unless a judge signs off on a warrant. The effort has earned support from congressional Democrats and the White House, suggesting it may pass after spending several years stuck in Congress.

The post Mike Lee Pushes To Stop Feds From Seizing Phone Records Without Notifying Subject in Wake of Biden Admin’s Arctic Frost Investigation appeared first on .

Klansman allegedly on SPLC payroll was 'true believer' white supremacist, not reformed infiltrator



The Justice Department announced an indictment last week against the Southern Poverty Law Center for allegedly funneling millions of dollars to the very extremist groups it claimed to be fighting.

In addition to allegedly having a hand in the planning of the deadly 2017 Unite the Right event in Charlottesville, Virginia — which led to over $106.47 million in contributions in fiscal year 2024 alone — the SPLC has been credibly accused of bankrolling leaders and organizers in the Ku Klux Klan, the Aryan Nation, the American Front, United Klans of America, the National Socialist Party of America, and the National Alliance.

'The SPLC engaged in a massive fraud operation to deceive their donors.'

Eager to reassure deep-pocketed donors, SPLC CEO Bryan Fair claimed in a recent video statement that the individuals inside various extremist networks whom his organization has funded were actually "paid confidential informants" tasked with gathering "credible intelligence."

Liberals rushed to embrace and defend Fair's suggestion that the SPLC wasn't backing its purported foes but rather "paying informants to expose and prevent violence by the KKK, neo-Nazis, and other hate groups."

This narrative might have survived the month had the identities of the SPLC's "informants" remained secret.

The New York Post, however, claims to have identified at least two of the eight radicals the smear- and fearmongering racket bankrolled.

The Post reported that one of the two alleged SPLC field sources referred to as "F-unknown" in the indictment was Bradley Scott Jenkins, an imperial wizard of the United Klans of America who regarded himself as the leader of the "true Klan."

RELATED: History of violence: How the SPLC's demonization racket helped set the stage for at least 1 shooting

L-R: Evelyn Hockstein/The Washington Post/Getty Images; Nathan Posner/Anadolu/Getty Images

The SPLC noted in 2013 that the original United Klans of America — which was responsible for the deadly bombing of Birmingham's 16th Street Baptist Church in 1963 — "dissolved after it was sued by the Southern Poverty Law Center in the 1980s, but in June 2011, longtime white nationalist Bradley Jenkins of Ashland, Ala., (now the UKA’s self-proclaimed imperial wizard) registered a domain name and attempted a comeback. Jenkins ... dreams of rehabilitating the Klan’s image."

Jenkins, a virulent white supremacist until his death in 2023 at the age of 50, not only revived a group that the SPLC identified as a "serious domestic threat" but reportedly showed no signs of reform or undermining the KKK's agenda, according to his son, Noah Jenkins.

Noah Jenkins, 24, told the Post, "When I went to the rallies with him as a kid, I never saw anything that made me think he wasn’t a true believer."

The wizard's son long suspected that his father "was working with someone" but figured that "maybe he got into trouble and was threatened by [law enforcement] to become an informant to avoid jail or something."

The SPLC did not respond to a request for comment from Blaze News.

The other individual suspected of being one of the SPLC's alleged "informants" is April Chambers of Georgia.

According to the Post, Chambers is the "F-unknown" described in the indictment as a KKK member who, along with her husband, "an Exalted Cyclops" of the Klan, sued the Peach State over the KKK's unsuccessful attempt to participate in Georgia Adopt-a-Highway program.

The indictment alleges that "during the course of the litigation, known payments were traced from the SPLC to F-unknown which exceeded $3,500.00."

Chambers, who did not respond to the Post's request for comment, now apparently runs a home cleaning and handyman service.

FBI Director Kash Patel recently stated, "The SPLC engaged in a massive fraud operation to deceive their donors, funded the very hate groups they claim to oppose, and then hid their operations from the public through shell companies and fake entities."

The SPLC has been charged with 11 counts of wire fraud, false statements to a federally insured bank, and conspiracy to commit concealment money laundering.

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Schumer rushes to defend the SPLC after it was EXPOSED for apparently funding racist extremism



The Justice Department announced on Tuesday that a grand jury in Alabama returned an indictment charging the Southern Poverty Law Center with 11 counts of wire fraud, false statements to a federally insured bank, and conspiracy to commit concealment money laundering.

Democrats are by now no doubt accustomed to hearing that many of the activists driving their agenda on the left are crooked; however, the SPLC is not merely accused of corruption.

'It should send a chill down the spine of every American.'

Rather, it has been credibly accused of bankrolling leaders and organizers in the very extremist groups it claimed to be fighting — including the Ku Klux Klan, the Aryan Nation, the American Front, United Klans of America, the National Socialist Party of America, and the National Alliance — as well as having a hand in the deadly 2017 Unite the Right rally in Charlottesville, Virginia.

"The SPLC is manufacturing racism to justify its existence," stated acting Attorney General Todd Blanche.

Despite this alleged betrayal of donors and fellow travelers alike, Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) and Democrat operatives have rallied to the hate racket's defense.

Schumer said Wednesday on the floor of the U.S. Senate that the "deeply disturbing charges" brought against the SPLC "should send a chill down the spine of every American who cares about free expression and the rule of law in the Justice Department. It should send a chill down the spine of every American who cares about civil liberties and the fight against violent extremism."

RELATED: History of violence: How the SPLC's demonization racket helped set the stage for at least 1 shooting

L-R: Evelyn Hockstein/The Washington Post/Getty Images; Nathan Posner/Anadolu/Getty Images

Contrary to Schumer's suggestion, Americans keen on fighting violent extremism might be delighted to learn that the Justice Department has targeted an alleged financial crutch holding up violent bigots across the country.

The indictment against the SPLC alleges that between 2014 and 2023, the organization — which raked in over $106.47 million in contributions in fiscal year 2024 alone — "secretly funneled more than $3 million in SPLC funds to [field sources] who were associated with various violent extremist groups."

"Let's be clear what this case is ... really about," said Schumer. "It has nothing to do with alleged wire fraud or with the Southern Poverty Law Center somehow working in coordination with the KKK. That's ridiculous on its face. It doesn't pass the laugh test."

'This is core to counter-extremism work.'

Schumer claimed that the case against the SPLC is ultimately about President Donald Trump turning the DOJ into the "Department of Vengeance — his own attack dog."

The deeply unpopular Democrat suggested further that this case demonstrates that the administration is targeting opponents of "white supremacy" and "turning what America is all about inside out."

Schumer was hardly the only Democrat associate to dismiss the possibility that the SPLC was keeping the illusion of formidable hatred alive in order to continue bilking deep-pocketed donors.

RELATED: SPLC indictment BOMBSHELL: Charlottesville violence allegedly was a leftist-funded 'false flag'

Acting AG Todd Blanche. Mandel NGAN/AFP/Getty Images

Norman Eisen, a Democrat operative who served as special counsel to former President Barack Obama, suggested in a joint statement with Richard Painter — former associate counsel to former President George W. Bush — and Virginia Canter — former associate counsel to former Presidents Bill Clinton and Barack Obama — that the SPLC wasn't bankrolling its purported foes but rather "paying informants to expose and prevent violence by the KKK, neo-Nazis, and other hate groups."

"This is core to counter-extremism work, and it’s exactly what the DOJ and FBI should be doing — not attacking legendary civil rights organizations," wrote the trio.

"SPLC is ideologically opposed to hate groups and hate crimes. We stand with SPLC and will support them in every way."

Maya Wiley, CEO of the D.C.-based liberal organization Leadership Conference on Civil and Human Rights, characterized the effort to hold the SPLC to account as retaliation over the liberal hate racket's alleged work protecting people from hatred.

"What is happening to civil rights organizations right now is the most coordinated assault on our sector since COINTELPRO," said Wiley.

"In order to have absolute power, [the Trump administration] must dismantle our rights. And that’s why they’re coming after us."

'They have made no secret of who they want to protect.'

"The Southern Poverty Law Center has spent decades doing that work, and we stand with them," added Wiley, who previously served as counsel to Democrat New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio.

The American Constitution Society, a liberal activist group that has received funding from the Tides Nexus and George Soros' Open Society Foundations, joined the gaslighting campaign, framing the indictment as an attack by the administration motivated by a difference of opinion on policy and politics.

"This is a clear abuse of power," stated the ACS. "The American Constitution Society stands in solidarity with SPLC and all of our partners working to uphold the rule of law, strengthen our democratic legitimacy, and realize the promise of equality for all."

SPLC CEO Bryan Fair said in a video statement this week, "For 55 years, the Southern Poverty Law Center has stood as a beacon of hope, fighting white supremacy and various forms of injustice to create a multiracial democracy where we can all live and thrive."

"We are therefore unsurprised to be the latest organization targeted by this administration," continued Fair. "They have made no secret of who they want to protect and who they want to destroy."

Fair suggested that the field sources referred to in the indictment were "paid confidential informants" tasked with gathering "credible intelligence on extremely violent groups." He said the SPLC no longer works with such informants.

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SPLC indictment BOMBSHELL: Charlottesville violence allegedly was a leftist-funded 'false flag'



Charlottesville, Virginia, became a flash point as tensions grew in August 2017 over the fate of American monuments that liberals deemed too racist to leave standing in public spaces.

A hodgepodge of protesters and counterprotesters — which included radical leftists, those opposed to removing Confederate statues, neo-Nazis, and white supremacists — descended on the city ahead of the so-called Unite the Right rally on Aug. 12.

Agitators helped ensure that the event went sideways.

'Trigger the violence because you can't stop the legitimate speech.'

Following a series of skirmishes between various factions, one demonstrator drove his car into a crowd of counterprotesters, injuring over 30 and killing 32-year-old Heather Heyer.

According to the grand jury indictment filed against the Southern Poverty Law Center on Tuesday, this bloody and tragic event — which the American left politically exploited for years and former President Joe Biden cited as his reason for running in 2020 — was the product, in part, of liberal machinations.

The indictment accuses the SPLC — a liberal outfit whose bread and butter is smearing law-abiding conservatives as "extremists" — of funneling millions of dollars to the very extremist groups it claimed to be fighting.

RELATED: Oath Keepers, Proud Boys feel hopeful and skeptical after Trump DOJ’s moves to end Biden-era witch hunt

Zach D Roberts/NurPhoto/Getty Images

In addition to allegedly bankrolling leaders and organizers in the Ku Klux Klan, the Aryan Nation, the National Socialist Party of America, and the National Alliance, the SPLC allegedly "had a field source who was a member of the online leadership chat group that planned the 2017 'Unite the Right' event," according to the indictment.

This field source, who is not named in the indictment, allegedly made "racist postings under the supervision of the SPLC and helped coordinate transportation to the event for several attendees."

For their contributions to the cause, this field source was allegedly paid over $270,000 by the SPLC in secret between 2015 and 2023.

The SPLC did not respond to Blaze News' request for comment.

While its insider was allegedly setting the stage for the rally, the SPLC worked feverishly to emphasize the importance of the planned event, noting in an Aug. 7, 2017, Hatewatch post, for example, that "the event may well become a seminal point for the Alt-Right and the extremist hate fringe: It’s a bold move beyond the anonymity of web sites, message boards, pseudonyms and social media — a move to take the hardcore, racist, white nationalist message to the public square."

In the same post, the SPLC hyped the possibility of violence at the "'summer of hate' gathering of racist extremists from all corners of the country," noting that "the looming social chemistry on a hot summer weekend ... seems to point to the clear possibility of violence."

The bloodletting in Charlottesville proved to be a windfall for the SPLC.

Days after the event, Apple CEO Tim Cook stated that "hate is a cancer and left unchecked it destroys everything in its path." Seeking to "help organizations who work to rid our country of hate," Cook announced that his company was making a $1 million contribution to the SPLC.

Soon thereafter, JP Morgan Chase & Co. pledged half a million to the SPLC, and George and Amal Clooney announced that they were dumping $1 million into SPLC to help it highlight the imagined dangers of white-supremacist ideology.

The Clooneys said in a statement at the time, "What happened in Charlottesville, and what is happening in communities across our country, demands our collective engagement to stand up to hate."

According to the indictment against the SPLC announced by the Justice Department on Tuesday, such donations collected from deep-pocketed liberals "under the auspices that the funds would be used to 'dismantle' violent extremist groups ... was, instead, being used, in part, by the SPLC to pay leaders and others within these same violent extremist groups."

The SPLC allegedly poured over $3 million in such funds to field sources associated with violent extremist groups between 2014 and 2023. These money transfers were allegedly made through a series of bank accounts created in the name of fictional entities, including the Center Investigative Agency, Fox Photography, North West Technologies, and Rare Books Warehouse.

The revelation that an SPLC plant might have been involved in the Unite the Right rally would help explain why the organization was so desperate to attack the notion that the event was a "false flag" from the start.

In the immediate aftermath of the violent rally, Alex Jones reportedly accused the SPLC of hiring actors to dress up like racists and prompt a crackdown by police on the rally's legitimate attendees.

"That's the plan," Jones said. "Trigger the violence because you can't stop the legitimate speech."

Arizona Rep. Paul Gosar (R) was among the others who similarly suspected something was fishy, telling Vice News in October 2017 that the rally was likely "created by the left."

The SPLC insisted that claims that the event was a "false flag" operation or that leftist infiltrators were among its organizers — Jason Kessler, the event's primary organizer, was previously an Obama-supporting Occupy protester — were ludicrous "conspiracy theories" that served only to demonstrate "the strength of the link between the conspiratorial extreme right (Jones, Infowars, Gateway Pundit, etc) and the racist 'alt-right.'"

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Liberal media silent as Senate proves FBI spied on GOP without evidence as soon as Biden was president



Sen. Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa) has obtained new documents revealing that the Biden FBI's targeting of GOP lawmakers in the wake of the Jan. 6, 2021, protests was not limited to Operation Arctic Frost but was rather "part of a pattern of political weaponization."

The documents obtained by Grassley and published by the Daily Caller provide insights into the nature and baselessness of the Biden FBI's "Rampart Twelve" investigation, which was initially pursued against Republican Reps. Lauren Boebert (Colo.), Paul Gosar (Ariz.), and Andy Biggs (Ariz.), as well as against former Rep. Mo Brooks (Ala.), by the bureau's Washington field office.

'My Democrat colleagues want to ignore these facts and evidence and defend the fired officials who participated in Biden’s lawfare.'

As with Arctic Frost, this Biden FBI lawfare campaign saw investigators obtain toll records, at least for Boebert and Gosar. Toll records provide investigators with identifying information of callers along with the date, time, location, and length of a call.

The Rampart Twelve probe was launched on Jan. 22, 2021, two days after Biden took office, on the basis of bogus claims made by then-Reps. Mikie Sherrill (D-N.J.) and John Yarmuth (D-Ky.) as well as by Democrat Rep. Steve Cohen (Tenn.). These claims specifically alleged that the Republicans "may have assisted or conspired with persons, groups, or organizations who planned or organized the unlawful entry on January 6, 2021, of the United States Capitol Building."

For instance, Sherrill, now the governor of New Jersey, alleged in a January 2021 video shared to Facebook that some lawmakers had brought groups of people into the Capitol ahead of Jan. 6 to conduct "reconnaissance for the next day."

Text messages between prosecutors reveal a desire by elements at the Biden Justice Department to advance the case despite an awareness that proving the Republicans intended harm when supposedly bringing people to the Capitol "might be impossible" and that some of the imagery cited by the complainants "does not look suspicious."

There was a clear desire to avoid additional levels of scrutiny when executing this lawfare campaign against the Biden administration's political opponents.

After concern was apparently expressed about secretly investigating members of Congress, J.P. Cooney, a prosecutor who ultimately served as a top deputy to special counsel Jack Smith in two criminal prosecutions of President Donald Trump, provided some reassurance to Timothy Thibault, an anti-Trump FBI agent then with the the bureau, that doing so was OK.

RELATED: Kash Patel says 2020 election fraud arrests are 'coming soon'

Kevin Dietsch/Getty Images

Cooney noted in a Feb. 3, 2021, letter to Thibault that Attorney General Bill Barr did issue a memorandum in February 2020 requiring prior written notification and consultation with the assistant attorney general and the U.S. attorney with jurisdiction before investigating "declared candidates" for Congress. However, Cooney claimed that the Republican targets were fair game as they were no longer candidates but rather newly sworn-in members of the House.

The FBI appears to have kept Rampart Twelve alive until at least January 2022, when Thibault informed a Washington field office FBI agent who wanted to interview Boebert and Gosar that "direction from FBIHQ is to close the case."

"Rampart Twelve appears to be a predecessor case to Arctic Frost," Grassley said in a statement read by Sen. Eric Schmitt (R-Mo.) during the hearing on Tuesday.

"The evidence to support the investigation didn't exist. Even so, J.P. Cooney personally concurred with opening the investigation even though his text messages told a different tale."

Schmitt told the Daily Caller, "These bombshell documents reveal that bad actors at the highest levels of our government and intelligence agencies targeted broad swaths of the America[n] right and sitting members of Congress with no evidence of wrongdoing."

"This fishing expedition was nothing more than a political agenda. Finally under the leadership of Chairman Grassley and the work of this committee, we are shining a light on this corruption that the Democrats ignored under Biden, and we will not stop until there is full accountability for those involved," added Schmitt.

As of midday Tuesday, no liberal media outfit appears to have touched the story of the Biden FBI's Rampart Twelve fishing expedition.

"If not for my investigative work and brave whistleblowers, we wouldn’t know about FBI agents’ and DOJ prosecutors’ disgraceful efforts to try and destroy Republicans," Grassley told the Caller. "My Democrat colleagues want to ignore these facts and evidence and defend the fired officials who participated in Biden’s lawfare. I’ll continue working to expose the widespread constitutional abuses that occurred under the Biden administration, because transparency brings accountability."

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Oath Keepers, Proud Boys feel hopeful and skeptical after Trump DOJ’s moves to end Biden-era witch hunt



The Trump administration's Department of Justice is moving to vacate the seditious conspiracy convictions against several Proud Boys and Oath Keepers members who were involved in the Jan. 6, 2021, protest at the U.S. Capitol.

On Tuesday, the DOJ filed unopposed motions to throw out convictions and dismiss the indictments with prejudice for Oath Keepers founder Stewart Rhodes and members Kelly Meggs, Kenneth Harrelson, and Jessica Watkins, as well as Proud Boys members Ethan Nordean, Joseph Biggs, Zachary Rehl, and Dominic Pezzola.

'I'm excited to finally move on from January 6.'

The DOJ claimed that dismissal of the criminal cases would be "in the interests of justice."

"The government's motion to vacate in this case is consistent with its practice of moving the Supreme Court to vacate convictions in cases where the government has decided in its prosecutorial discretion that dismissal of a criminal case is in the interests of justice — motions that the Supreme Court routinely grants," the motions read.

Under the Biden DOJ, Rhodes was sentenced to 18 years in prison, Meggs to 12 years, Harrelson to four years, Watkins to 8.5 years, Nordean to 18 years, Biggs to 17 years, Rehl to 15 years, and Pezzola to 10 years.

In January 2025, Trump commuted the sentences of each of the defendants. However, the president stopped short of granting a pardon, leaving the convictions on their records. Among the defendants, six are military veterans, and the continued presence of those felony convictions carries significant consequences for any VA benefits or military retirement pay for which they may previously have been eligible.

RELATED: Exclusive: GOP-run Jan. 6 subcommittee goes after trove of data deleted by Pelosi-appointed Jan. 6 committee

Jon Cherry/Getty Images

"I couldn't be happier," Rehl told Blaze News. "I'm excited to finally move on from January 6, and my family and I are looking forward to rebuilding our lives again."

Rehl thanked Trump, acting U.S. Attorney General Todd Blanche, and U.S. pardon attorney Edward Martin for "making this possible!"

Carolyn Stewart, an attorney representing Meggs, stated that she is "pleased that the DOJ finally admitted there should be no further prosecution of my innocent client, Mr. Meggs — where he can go forward with his life without this shadow."

Norm Pattis, an attorney representing Biggs, expressed skepticism that the court would grant the DOJ's request but told Blaze News that he is "delighted to see the Justice Department throw in the towel," noting that it "should have done that years ago."

"I hope the courts do it, but I do think it's a head-scratching request," Pattis said, explaining that the DOJ previously poured thousands of hours and hundreds of thousands — if not millions — of dollars into its prosecution and therefore "clearly thought that the interests of justice required that prosecution then."

"The separation of powers doctrine leaves to the executive branch decisions about whether to prosecute. Once the case is gone to judgment in the judicial branch, that branch has spoken. Suggesting that, 'Well, we've changed our mind, millions of dollars, years later, in the interest of justice,' it doesn't really promote respect for the law. It makes it look like a funhouse over there and makes you wonder who's running the shop," Pattis stated.

He noted that despite Trump's decision to commute Biggs' sentence, the military veteran lost the pension that he "earned by virtue of his Purple Heart and combat injuries that he suffered."

"We want that pension back," Pattis said. "I'm not at all counting on relief. I still think this ends up back on the president's desk for a full pardon."

RELATED: Trump pardons 1,500 Jan. 6 defendants, commutes the sentences of 14

Andrew Harnik/Getty Images

Rhodes, who also spoke with Blaze News, expressed hopefulness about the DOJ's motion to vacate, calling it "very good news," adding that it would "be a blessing to have not just our convictions overturned, but the underlying charges dismissed with prejudice."

"It would wipe our records clean," Rhodes told Blaze News. "I'm a disabled veteran. … I'm service-connected disabled from a parachuting accident when I was serving as a paratrooper in the Army, and I lost all my VA benefits, along with being a felon and losing my rights to bear arms."

Rhodes speculated that the DOJ may have requested to vacate to "avoid a potentially negative outcome on appeal that could affect their ability to use a statute in the future." He noted that seditious conspiracy is "a very legally vulnerable statute" from the Civil War era that is "overbroad and vague" and "does not provide any shelter for free speech."

"It's an ancient statute that I don't believe passes muster constitutionally, but it hasn't been directly challenged on those grounds," Rhodes said.

Rhodes stated that the DOJ may realize that the statute is "vulnerable [to] being struck down" or that it may result in the "narrowing of the scope of … conspiracy charges in general."

He also pointed to the active civil claims that Jan. 6 defendants lodged against the U.S. as a possible reason the DOJ requested that the convictions be thrown out.

"If they wind up with a bad outcome in the appellate case, with the court finding that there was prosecutorial misconduct, that there was constitutional violations, that could affect them when it comes to the civil claims too. And we can point to those findings," he said.

"There was perjury in all of our cases. We caught two cops lying red-handed in our case," Rhodes said, referring to a Blaze News investigation that revealed then-U.S. Capitol Police Officers Harry Dunn and David Lazarus had testified that they were together on Jan. 6, despite video footage showing otherwise. "That's the kind of crap that would come out in the appeal."

"I don't believe this is the DOJ being nice to us," he continued. "I'm willing to give props to the DOJ for doing the right thing, even if it's not for the right reasons."

If the court accepts the DOJ's requests, Rhodes noted that it will "definitely be fantastic for the restoration of our lives."

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Tulsi Gabbard has BAD NEWS for spook whose complaint launched Trump Ukraine-call impeachment



Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard released documents on Monday revealing that hearsay and erroneous claims from bad actors served as the basis for President Donald Trump's impeachment over a phone call with Ukrainian President Volodmyr Zelenskyy in July 2019, months before the 2020 U.S. presidential campaign began in earnest.

At least two of those bad actors now face the possibility of criminal prosecution.

'Deep state actors within the Intelligence Community concocted a false narrative that was used by Congress to usurp the will of the American people.'

An Obama holdover and CIA analyst credibly identified as Eric Ciaramella filed a complaint in August 2019 alleging Trump was "using the power of his office to solicit interference from a foreign country in the 2020 U.S. elections. This interference includes, among other things, pressuring a foreign country — Ukraine — to investigate one of the President's main domestic political rivals, former Vice President Biden."

Then-Intelligence Community Inspector General Michael Atkinson ultimately spun the complaint as credible and rushed it to the congressional intelligence committees despite:

  • Conducting only four interviews — one with the so-called whistleblower's Russia-hoaxer friend and two character references;
  • Never once accessing the transcript of the call;
  • Knowing that Ciaramella — whose political bias Atkinson testified to never considering — was a registered Democrat who worked closely with Vice President Biden, traveled with Biden to Ukraine, and complained about right-wing bloggers; and
  • Knowing that Ciaramella had no firsthand evidence of what was being alleged.

The complaint, likely from Ciaramella and afforded a veneer of legitimacy by Atkinson, led to the House of Representatives passing articles of impeachment against the president in December 2019.

RELATED: Trump 2019 impeachment exposed: Gabbard provides damning insights into deep-state stitch-up

Win McNamee/Getty Images (L); Brendan SMIALOWSKI/AFP/Getty Images (R)

Gabbard stated, "Deep state actors within the Intelligence Community concocted a false narrative that was used by Congress to usurp the will of the American people and impeach the duly-elected President of the United States."

Gabbard went beyond just exposing this frame-up this week, asking the Justice Department to investigate two former government officials.

A spokeswoman for the director confirmed to CBS News that Gabbard had drafted criminal referrals for the so-called whistleblower and a "former intelligence community watchdog" but did not specify what crimes are alleged.

The referrals reviewed by Fox News noted, however, that "the possible criminal activity concerns the circumstances described in the following congressional briefings:Discussion with Intelligence Community Inspector General, House Permanent Select Comm. on Intel., 116th Cong. (2019); Briefing by the Intelligence Community Inspector General, House Permanent Select Comm. on Intel., 116th Cong. (2019)."

Blaze News has reached out to the DOJ for comment.

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'Clear abuse': Appellate court thwarts Judge Boasberg's plan to investigate top Trump officials



U.S. District Court Judge James Boasberg was handed a major defeat on Tuesday amid his ongoing jihad against the Trump administration.

Early last year, the Obama appointee ordered a pause to the Trump administration's planned deportations of Tren de Aragua terrorists under the Alien Enemies Act. Boasberg was not, however, sufficiently quick on the draw.

Secretary of State Marco Rubio revealed that two planes loaded with alleged gangsters were already airborne, one headed to El Salvador and the other to Honduras.

'These proceedings are a clear abuse.'

Boasberg, who previously helped the Biden FBI spy on Republican lawmakers' phone records and released a woman accused of repeatedly threatening President Donald Trump's life, lashed out in response.

Days after the U.S. Supreme Court threw out his temporary restraining order blocking the administration from using the AEA to deport Tren de Aragua gangsters, Boasberg stated in a court motion a year ago that the federal government had demonstrated "a willful disregard" for his ruling, prompting him "to conclude that probable cause exists to find the Government in criminal contempt."

RELATED: Liberals increase their stranglehold over Wisconsin Supreme Court — which now has ties to Planned Parenthood

John Moore/Getty Images

Boasberg attempted to pursue criminal proceedings against top administration officials, but the Justice Department intervened, asking the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit to ground the activist judge's "endless fishing expedition."

In its petition to the appellate court, the DOJ accused the district court of plunging forward "in a doubly unconstitutional manner: by conducting its own criminal investigation (contra the separation of powers) and doing so in a way that appears designed to punish Defendants for their successful mandamus petition (contra the Due Process Clause)."

The DOJ argued further that Boasberg's order was "also incoherent on its own terms," noting "there was no willful violation as a matter of law because the TRO did not clearly forbid the conduct at issue."

On Monday, a three-judge panel on the appellate court, comprising two Trump appointees and an Obama appointee, crushed Boasberg's dreams of raking Trump officials over the coals in criminal contempt proceedings in a 2-1 decision.

"The district court proposes to probe high-level Executive Branch deliberations about matters of national security and diplomacy," Judge Neomi Rao noted in the opinion for the court. "These proceedings are a clear abuse of discretion, as the district court’s order said nothing about transferring custody of the plaintiffs and therefore lacks the clarity to support criminal contempt based on the transfer of custody."

Rao said that Boasberg repeatedly "moved the goalposts"; suffered from an incredible lack of clarity, at least in his construction of his restraining order; "assumed an improper jurisdiction antagonistic to the Executive Branch"; and had pursued an "intrusive" and "improper" investigation that would inevitably terminate in a "legal dead end."

Boasberg did not respond to a request for comment from Blaze News.

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